As people and organizations rely more and more heavily upon wireless voice and data communications systems, the need for reliable communications becomes increasingly important. Voice and data communications devices such as wireless phones, personal digital assistants, portable computers and the like are commonly found in vehicles, homes, offices, aircraft and other locations yet many of these systems are unable to maintain reliable data connections in adverse conditions. Wireless communications may be disrupted by operating environments, buildings, mountains or other physical obstructions, for example, or may be adversely affected by weather conditions, transmitter and/or receiver movement or the like.
In a military setting, wireless communications may be further subjected to hostile jamming or interference, as well as the added processing demands of encryption to prevent unauthorized interception. Modern warfare, in particular, could benefit greatly from increased communications reliability on and above the battlefield. After the end of the Cold War and the advent of the Information Age, modern warfare strategies no longer focus on merely inflicting damage upon a particular enemy, but rather emphasize capabilities to shape behaviors of friends, foes and neutrals in peace, crisis and war settings. Whereas previous strategies generally focused upon countering defined combat threats, modern “effects based” operations provide a broad range of options for responding to a variety of challenges. Effects based operations (EBO) typically rely heavily upon the ability of combatants and strategists to rapidly share information about battlefield conditions, commander's intent and the like. Agility, lethality, survivability and responsiveness are all improved through rapid information sharing and improved situation awareness, thereby resulting in increased combat power and mission effectiveness. Similar benefits may be achieved from improving system reliability in other settings, such as in the home, workplace, community or the like.
Effects-based operations benefit greatly from the ability of geographically separated entities to quickly and efficiently share information, to collaborate on tasks, and to synchronize actions in a network-centric environment. In particular, network-centric (i.e. information based) operations (NCO) benefit from flexible coordination of available resources to form dynamic, ad-hoc networks suitable for a particular mission or operation. It may be desirable, for example, for a soldier operating on a battlefield to obtain real-time photographs or other data from a satellite or aircraft passing overhead during an operation. Such timely and accurate data may greatly reduce the risks and increase the effectiveness of the soldier's operation, yet this information may not always be reliably available.
It is therefore desirable to improve the reliability of wireless voice and data communications, particularly in the battlefield setting. It is also desirable to create systems and methods for providing guaranteed, reliable quality of service across wireless communications links. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.